1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic commerce. More particularly, the invention pertains to methods, systems, and apparatuses for coordinating and managing rental transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercial trading and exchange systems have become more sophisticated and more powerful in recent years. This is partly due to recent advances in digital information processing infrastructures, in particular, due to wide availability of personal computers and global data communications networks such as the Internet. In fact, electronic commerce, or e-commerce, has become a vital component of modern economy. Millions of trades occur on Internet-based auction systems such as eBay every day, for instance, and many traditional mercantile exchanges or exchanges for financial instruments have been augmented or replaced by their electronic counterparts. Modern electronic commerce systems span basically all areas of consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) transactions.
One area, however, that has been slow in adopting this electronic commerce revolution is a rental industry (e.g., rental of goods, services, etc.). Even though many aspects of the business have been computerized in recent years, the basic business model remains the same. For example, you can make a reservation on the Web to rent an automobile. However, in essence, this is not very different from making reservations using telephones. One notable exception is on-line DVD rental business pioneered by Netflix and now adopted by many companies such as Blockbuster or Walmart, etc. Netflix, for example, do not charge rental fees per items. Rather, their business is based on membership fees. A certain membership level entitles a subscriber to a certain right as to how many items he or she can rent and/or hold at any given moment.
Traditional, as well as new online-type, rental businesses deal with a set of well-defined item types, and they are interfaced with two “actors” (in UML jargon). Namely, an item provider/lender (e.g., a rental business) and one or more renters/borrowers. Typically, the item provider and a renter enter into a contract which grants the renter a right to use a certain item(s) of a specified type for a certain period of time in exchange, for example, for a fee. At least one embodiment of the present invention generalizes this to rental between multiple providers and multiple renters. Some or all parties can be both providers and renters at the same time. One such example is a sports or recreation club, or a movie club, where members can lend and borrow items such as DVD movie titles among one another.
In order for a multi-party rental or exchange system to work, it may require mediators like stock exchanges. It is particularly so when the number of parties and/or the number of rental item types grow, thereby increasing the complexity of the system. It should also be noted that many functions performed by the item provider in traditional rental business may be delegated to other entities such as the mediator/exchange since there may be multiple item providers. Multi-party rental systems share many similar characteristics with traditional exchange-based trading systems. In particular, they share the same difficulties of matching offers and bids and setting trading/rental prices and the like. In the context of the multi-party rental system, the problem in designing such systems can be summarized, among other things, as follows:                Difficulty of a renter in finding a provider with a desired item (e.g., with mutually agreeable terms, etc.), and vice versa,        Difficulty in setting a proper rental “price” for an item (or, for an item type), or more generally, in estimating a proper value of a rental transaction,        Difficulty in matching providers and renters efficiently so that there is enough liquidity in the system, and        Difficulty in tracking rented items, etc.        
Various embodiments of the present invention address one or more of these issues. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for rental of items (goods or services, etc.). It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for item rental that can be implemented between multiple providers and multiple renters. It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and process to coordinate item rentals among multiple parties. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for facilitating matching, bargaining, and contracting between multiple participants whose renting/offering and requesting items are separated in terms of rental times and geographical locations. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for finding an item provider for a given item type. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for listing and browsing available items and requested/demanded items. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for automatically matching providers and renters for a given set of item types. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an automated method and system for facilitating negotiations between multiple parties. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a computerized system for setting rental prices and other contractual terms without explicit intervention of relevant parties. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a secure system for providing market summaries or indicators regarding rental item supplies and demands. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for providing anonymity and security to participants of a multi-party or mutual rental system. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an automatic system which facilitates and ensures the liquidity of a rental system. Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.